


Secrets and Stupidity

by demon_lizard



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Irken Empire (Invader Zim), M/M, Not real lore for IZ but I mean I worked hard, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, The Resisty Resisting Against the Irken Empire (Invader Zim), i dabble in angst but failed miserably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21657493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demon_lizard/pseuds/demon_lizard
Summary: Dib and Zim were best friends, keyword were. After a falling out the two sit at a stalemate, neither really wanting to break the truce. Although it turns out that there are bigger fish to fry when there is one particular "human" that could be an Irken spy within their school.
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Purple/Almighty Tallest Red, Dib/Zim (Invader Zim), Gaz/Tak (Invader Zim), OC X OC
Kudos: 27





	1. A Class Trip Begins

**Author's Note:**

> This is currently being worked on by three people that try their best. sorry if it takes a while for another chapter, we have it all written down, but one issue, the main person writing forgot one important detail, to split it into chapters and now we all don't know what should be a chapter. 
> 
> also the falling out between dib and zim isn't mentioned a lot,, because i forgot about it.
> 
> oh and this is mostly PG-13 without the swears- well in the story other than that enjoy!

Dib stared out the window, the bus pushing him back and forth. His face was contorted into a frown as he started thinking about something, aliens? Zombies? Ghosts? Not “Real Science”? All of those seemed likely to Zim, who glanced at the boy across the aisle, opening his mouth to speak, but had closed it very quickly when he saw Dib had started to turn his head towards him. Zim blinked away from the boy, not wanting to be caught looking at him after their argument.

Dib’s frown deepened when it landed on the green alien. “Lizard..” He muttered under his breath before tugging his bag that was previously on the floor on top of his lap. Zim listened to the zipper unzipping and then looked back at Dib. Dib was typing something into his laptop, most likely a password that Zim needed to get a hold of, before his screen turned purple. Zim raised a non-existent eyebrow and watched as the light placed on Dib’s face turned into a mix of green, magenta-ish pink, and white. This caused him to panic a bit, realising Dib might have photo evidence of Zim being an Irken.

“Dib-stink,” Zim said before he could stop himself, startling the human. Dib glared daggers at the alien not saying anything, but clearly having his attention. Zim bit his lip before continuing, “What are you doing?”

“You don’t need to know.” Dib responded harshly, causing the alien to flinch. Zim knew this was exactly what they had done before the Truce. Zim should have been used to it, but the three months of him and the human boy being “friends” had made him soft. Zim bit down on his tongue, tasting a bit of his own blood.

Zim sucked in a breath, “Dib-”

“Shut up, Alien.” Dib glared even more harshly now, clearly not processing the fact that Zim was just gonna call him by his actual name, not some rude offhand comment. The alien bit harder on his tongue and watched as Dib’s hard glare shifted off of him and back at his laptop, which he started typing into. Zim watched the boy hastily type for a couple of minutes before looking out the window, watching as trees rushed by. Obviously Zim started counting how long the bus would take before dropping them off at some camp or whatever they were going to.

Zim was nearly going to attempt to talk to Dib again, but when he saw the bus slow and turn left into a small parking lot, he lost all courage. Zim stood up when he was told to, placing his messenger bag on his shoulder. The green boy got off the bus, making eye contact with the raven haired boy he’s been trying to talk to all day. The purple eye contacts pleaded with the human’s actual brown eyes, the pleas fell upon deaf ears and the brown eyes looked away. The alien whimpered, looking down to the gravel. Gaz had silently tapped Zim’s shoulder, causing him to jump and look her direction, before passing him a note, going to talk to Dib.

Zim folded open the note, seeing the sloppy yet legible handwriting of Gaz.

_ "Zim, I swear to god talk to Dib. He’s driving me crazy. Didn’t you two make a TRUCE? Why isn’t it, ya’know WORKING? Seriously, I’m going to force you guys to talk or I’m gonna kill Dib." _

A soft smile fell upon Zim’s face, but he felt the hot tears build up at the mention of the truce. Honestly all Zim wants is those three months back, who needs world domination when you have a friend- a partner? Yet the unlucky alien watched as Gaz pleaded with her brother to talk to Zim, and as that failed she punched him in the gut, causing Dib’s glasses to fall off his face and Gaz to march away. Zim quietly placed the note into his messenger bag before walking over to the boy clutching his stomach in pain. “Here..” Zim reached down and grabbed Dib’s glasses, handing them back to the owner.

Dib could clearly see it was Zim, his green skin was way too distinct to be taken away by blurred blobs, but took his glasses back placing them on his face. “Thanks Spaceboy…” He muttered, before looking to the teachers for instructions and explanations of why they are at some crummy camp. Zim noticed Dib wasn’t shooing him away, and took advantage of it. Zim stood next to the boy glancing ever so often to see his reaction.

Before the moment got anymore awkward their advisor, Mr. Clark, spoke, “Students, you all may be wondering why the school board decided to send their kids to various camps around the district. Us teachers don’t really have the full answer but-” He gets cut off by that one kid everyone has in every class, loud, obnoxious, gets suspended on the fifth week of school kind of guy.

“They just wanted to get rid of us. The School Board are bitc-”

“That’s ENOUGH Ryder.” Mrs. Lewis glared at her student, Zim shuddered recognising the pure hatred in that look from Dib’s usual glares. The green boy glanced at the boy next to him and jumped a little when his eyes met Dib’s. They continued to stare at each other, each entranced by other’s eyes as anyone would assume. Zim blinked, feeling the pain in his neck start to register from looking up for too long. The alien’s green lips pressed together as he watched the human intently, Dib’s lips parted, about to speak. Alas Mr. Clark started talking again, causing both of their eyes to divert and look towards the speaker. Zim hadn’t realised he’d stopped breathing during the moment he and Dib had made eye contact and sucked in a big breath.

“Thank you Mrs. Lewis. As I was saying, us teachers don’t know the full answer, but apparently they want students to bond or at least build stronger friendships. So everyone get with a partner real quick before we sort you happy campers into different cabins and groups. Before you ask Tak, yes. You are staying in the same groups as your chosen partner.”

Zim watched as everyone partnered up very quickly, Ryder and Jay, Tak and Gaz, Jom and Tom, and whatever else absurd name in the mix of Mrs. Lewis’s and Mr. Clark’s advisories. Dib tapped on Zim’s shoulder, “Partners?”


	2. New Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim catches two interesting faces and kinda fixes relationships like a good alien

The mumbled request came as a shock to Zim, he had to collect himself for a couple seconds before he responded “Zim would be hono- er- Zim will be your partner, Human.” It was clear the Irken was not able to hide his smile. Zim observed as the boy nodded, and looked back towards their advisor for future instruction. The green boy did the same shortly after, but got bored of looking at the teachers faces, he had to look at them for fifty minutes a day anyways, why would he wish to observe them more? His eyes darted around the small parking lot, landing on every person. A boy near the same size as Zim, with short pink hair that was fading in the back and you could see the brown roots and a taller girl, taller than Dib, with long brown locks took Zim’s interest. Maybe it was height difference being similar to Dib and him or just the two talking loudly about well, ghosts and aliens. 

Zim listened in carefully, glancing at Dib and noticed he’d done the same. “-nd Dib. Honestly I would talk to him and listen about his theories about the green kid.”

“Felix,” the girl hissed. “How about we don’t talk about this right now? They’re looking at us.”

Zim listened as the boy, Felix, had cursed fairly loud in another human language. “Alright Savannah, why don’t we talk to the dorks then?”

“Felix! You can’t just- Hey, wait-” Savannah followed the shorter boy, taking a single step to catch up with his five. Dib chuckled watching the two approach. “Hi, I’m Savannah.” She smiled politely, “This idiot over here is Felix, sorry about interrupting your…” She paused looking for the right word.

“Silence.” Felix deadpanned. That caused Dib to laugh a little, Zim bristled with anger. This boy is here to replace Zim! Zim bets that this boy is an Irken Spy, That’d explain the height and why he was so eager to talk to the Dib-Stink. Clearly. While Zim had been overcome with jealousy, Dib decided to speak.

“I’m Dib, as you probably know.” He scratched the back of his neck, “And this is a lizard.” Dib gestured vaguely at Zim, causing Zim to hiss.

“I am NOT a lizard. I AM ZIM!” Zim stated through gritted teeth, that caused a look to be exchanged by Felix and Savannah. Dib even looked, for lack of a better word, confused. He knew he was treading on thin ice, the very brief friendship that was trying to be restored by the Irken could’ve just been ruined by his outburst, Zim needed to be more careful. The four of them stayed silent, Most of them looked uncomfortable. The slightly taller boy smiled awkwardly, before taking a deep breath preparing to speak.

“So ... uh… Mrs. Lewis is about to speak soon. Here,” Felix pulled out a sharpie from his pocket, grabbing Dib’s arm before uncapping the marker. It hovered over Dib’s skin waiting to be pressed into it. Dib nodded, understanding what the human’s look meant. The pink haired boy started writing on Dib’s arm. “Take my phone number, we can talk later.” Felix said with a smile, before getting dragged away by his taller counterpart.

“That was interesting.” Dib said, observing the duo, before looking down towards the alien. Zim didn’t speak towards Dib, he was grumbling Irken swears fairly loudly. Dib stared at the Irken trying to decipher what he was saying before blinking away. Just as the foul Irken spy had said, Mrs. Lewis had begun speaking.

“Everyone have a partner?” Varied mumbled and grumbled “yes”s and “yeah”s came from the crowd of students. “Good. Now we will be calling up students, come with your partner so you both can be checked off the list.” They started calling off last names, Zim shuddered, he had forgotten what he had made his. In a panic Zim tugged on Dib’s sleeve.

“Dib, Psst Dib.” The taller boy looked down at the shorter Irken, “This may be a weird question, but do you remember what I made my last name? I.. forgot.” Dib mumbled something before pausing, Zim assumed he was thinking about it, for it sure looked like it. Dib’s brown eyes looked focused behind his glasses, hand placed on his chin, bottom lip slightly pouted.

“Wasn’t your name Zim I. Magenta?” Dib said, his previous stance falling into a shrug, “Or at least that’s what was on the attendance sheet.”

“Yes of course! Zim was just testing you human!” Zim fibbed, and Dib shook his head with a slight smile. Zim sat there, waiting for his last name to be called for his would be before Dibs. The Irkens eyes danced around the parking lot before landing on the presumed Irken spy. His pink hair fading into a silver was obviously a ploy made by their computer to make them look more human, all he needed was to find the source of the hologram and expose the alien. Felix looked at Zim with a smile, and waved. “If only looks could kill.” Zim muttered giving Felix a death glare, Dib looked at the Irken confused once again.

“Zim, What are you doing?”

“Obviously wishing looks could kill, Didn’t you hear me Stink-brain?”

“I know, but wh-” Before Dib could finish his sentence Mrs. Lewis called out Zim’s fake last name causing the two to rush over to their teacher.

“Oh! You two are talking again.” Mr. Clark said with a grin, “I am proud of you two working through you issues! Obviously this camp was the right choice for you two, Now you will be in a team with Tak and Gaz. Your team will be called the Mauve team! Good luck, you’ll be facing the Honey team tomorrow when our challenges begin.”

“Challenges?” Dib raised an eyebrow, folding his arms together. Obviously Zim didn’t like the idea either, are they going to force teenagers to fight to the death? This isn’t some book nor is it a fanfiction based around that said book!

“Yes, challenges. The staff thought to make it more fun for kids to put them against each other and have the winning team get some kind of reward.” Mrs. Lewis said, giving exposition. “I disagreed and said to let them be, but they insisted we do this.”

“We are getting an actual prize this time, and not a can of tuna?” Zim inquired, remembering the Poop Dog incident all too well. He had gone insane just trying to earn enough Earth Money to gain that mystery prize only to find out that it was just a ploy to get children to get money faster and got handed a can of tuna in consolation. Dib nodded, inquisitive as well.

“No! What kind of school did you guys go to?” Mr. Clark asked, worried for the two teenagers.

“A cheap one.” Dib stated with a frown, “Come on, Zim.” He waved for the boy to follow and Zim did as he was told, following the taller boy to his teammates. Tak, Dib, Zim, and Gaz had made up over the years, although it was still very awkward, even more so because of the previous fight they all had. “Hey Gaz.” Dib mumbled to his sister. Gaz nodded as a hello.

Tak was the first of the two aliens to speak, “Salutations everyone. Now Mauve Team, we need to place someone as the leader, we do not need to be running around chaotically and tripping over our own feet. I nominate Gaz.”

“That’s only because you two are dating!” Dib hissed, “I was originally going to make you leader Tak, but clearly since you are playing favorites, I will too. I vote Zim.” Zim blinked, Zim was Dib’s favorite of the group? Clearly not, Gaz obviously took that role, right? The only reason Dib had chosen Zim was because Tak had chosen Gaz, Yes that sounded right. Zim ignored his face heating up.

“That’s only because you want to DATE Zim! I vote Dib, sorry Tak.” What Gaz had added on made Zim and Dib sputter, their faces blushing.

“Pfft- What!? No I don’t!” Dib crossed his arms. Mr. Clark, hearing their yelling, came over, which caused Zim and Tak to recoil at his overly happy voice.

“I don’t hear any Happy Campers over here? What’s going on folks?” The cheery voice said to them softly.

“Oh do not worry Mr. Clark, we are merely assigning a leader for our team, nothing to be concerned about, now go back to your work. I believe Mrs. Lewis needs your assistance.” Tak said overly formal as usual.

“No, No. She’s fine, she sent me over here.” He lied, fairly obviously, Zim and the rest of Mauve Team noted. “Now what are the votes?” Mr. Clark asked. Zim sighed, deciding it was his turn to speak.

“Tak has none, Dib has one from Gaz, I have one from Dib, and Gaz has one from Tak. I am the only one who hasn’t voted, but honestly I believe this is all stupid.”

“Now Zim, I wouldn’t talk like that if I were you. The ‘S’ word is pretty harsh.” Mr. Clark folded his arms tightly across his chest. “Now say who you vote for, we’re all curious.”

“Stupid?” Zim muttered before shaking his head, “Now the two logical choices would be Dib and Tak. Sorry Gaz, but you act more impulsively and use your emotions and brute force to get your way, even though your experience is valued. Dib would be a good option for he’s good at planning and improvising when things don’t go to plan, the only issue with him is his moral conundrum, where either he’s very indecisive and confused or just can’t see something as fact, because of his morals. Tak on the other hand is cold, calculative, and does whatever she can to get what she wants, it doesn’t matter who she hurts, which is typically bad and utter dookie all the time. Although she has a lot of qualities that Dib has other than improvising. So… obviously Tak should run everything, Dib and Gaz will keep her morals in the right place, Gaz would also be the brute force, while I help Gaz with taking out the enemy.” Zim finished, leaving them all in silence.

Tak spoke first, “I’m changing my nomination, my apologies Mi Reina, to Zim.” Gaz nodded, and took Tak’s hand.

“That’s fair. Only reason I’m leaving my vote the same is Dib was smart enough to choose Zim.” Gaz snarked, causing a ‘Hey!’ to escape Dib’s lips. Mr. Clark nodded, satisfied with the group returning back to Mrs. Lewis to get yelled at for leaving.

“Zim doesn’t want to be leader- Zim’s- Zim’s a follower. Zim has no desire to be a leader.” Zim panicked, Dib watched as the alien’s breathing sped up. Dib reassuringly placed a hand on Zim’s shoulder. “Dib- I- I…” he couldn’t breathe. No matter how much air he breathed in there was nothing in his lungs, Dib quickly pulled Zim into a hug mumbling words quietly to him. Zim didn’t recognise any of words Dib spoke, obviously being in another language. After a minute of being held tightly and soft words getting mumbled to him, Zim pulled away being able to breathe a bit better. “Zim… will take this leader position. All I ask is the Dib-Stink to be a second leader, like a… co-leader.”

Everyone nodded, and talked to one another. It felt like the three months they had shared had returned, the nice warm feeling of company had surrounded Zim, along with something else he couldn’t put his finger on. Dib and Zim had resumed their usual banter about ghosts and aliens and such. Felix, Savannah, and two others approached, ruining Zim’s feelings entirely. How dare these Irken spies even dare approach the Mauve Team. They will regret it greatly. “Zim, Dib! How’s it going my pals?” Felix grinned.

Dib smiled, “Oh, I’m fine.” Zim glared at the group of people.

“I’m peachy.” Zim seethed with anger, he hated Felix, he hated everything about him, all the alien boy wanted to do was end this boy’s life Irken or not. Dib glanced at Zim, placing a hand on his shoulder. The action caused Felix to raise an eyebrow, but the pink-haired boy said nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's so weird reading over shit i wrote around two months ago,,, it's gonna take forever to even touch on the content for this i'm writing now


	3. Awkward Moments

“So Dib… who’s the leader of this team?” Felix hummed the question, “I’m the leader of the Lavender Grey Team, kind of.”

Savannah perked up, “I’m helping him not destroy everything.” Savannah placed a hand on her hip, looking at the boy who sheepishly looked down with an awkward laugh.

“Oh, that’s basically my position over here. Zim’s the leader, while I make sure he doesn’t run around too chaotically.” The mention of Zim being leader made the short boy furrow his brows, which made Zim growl inhumanly. This got a questioning look from Tak and Dib. Felix and Zim both made eye-contact, the inhuman purple eyes glaring at the dark brown ones which glared back.

“I have to talk to the Dib. Alone.” The Irken growled, taking Dib’s wrist and lead him far away from the teams. The human clearly disliked being dragged around and tugged against the grip on his wrist. “Trust me Stink-Brain, it’s for the best.”

Dib raised an eyebrow, “What does  _ that  _ mean?” The boy pulled his wrist out of Zim’s grasp finally, cradling it within his other hand.

“Obviously that boy’s an IRKEN. He’s definitely using you to gain information. They know I’ve abandoned my post. They’re probably going to take us both out. Dib- how could we be so blind- I knew I shouldn’t have stopped reporting to The Tallest!” Zim exclaimed, now pacing. “Dib-Human you know how to convert aliens, you converted the Almighty Zim after all! Maybe you could.. No… if my theory of that ‘Felix’ being an Irken Spy and not some plain old retrieval Irken we could be in grave danger, even more so by attempting to convert him.”

Dib grabbed onto Zim’s shoulders, “ZIM! Listen to me, nothing seems wrong with Felix; maybe you’re just paranoid? Jealous even.”

“This is no time to talk about jelly human! Why do you do this in the most serious of times?! Look you were wrong about Tak! What if- what if we can’t convert them at the last minute like we did before- what if-” The Alien cut himself off, breathing heavily and closing his eyes, before finishing his sentence very quietly to the point that he could barely hear it himself. “-What if Zim loses you?”

Dib sighed, his grip on Zim’s shoulders softening. “I’ll… keep a close eye. See if Felix does anything odd. Other than that, you need to calm down. Take a deep breath in through your, uh, whatever you have instead of a nose and out through your mouth.”

Dib’s comment made Zim snort, but still did the things the Human had told him to do. Dib knew about Zim’s little self made attacks; for Zim’s PAK had hated the idea of Zim being a free Irken and made the Irken have something that can be considered by human standards as a panic attack. “Alright you lizard, are you good?” The ‘Lizard’ nodded and took Dib’s wrist, The human didn’t complain this time. He had lead the Irken back to the group, to discover the Lavender Grey team had disappeared. Tak and Gaz glanced at each other, Gaz walked up to the Duo.

“I know you guys just came back, but can we steal Zim for a minute? I hate to leave you alone, but Tak and I think it’s really important.” Gaz said, not sounding like herself but then tacked on, “If you disagree to this Dib, prepare for a fist to demolish your gut.”

“Ah, that’s the Gaz I know.” Dib hummed, as Zim released Dib’s wrist. “Alright, I’ll just head to the cabin? Which cabin is it?”

“Cabin Nine. Have fun unpacking, Dork.” Gaz said with a slight smile, Dib left the group, bag loosely slung over his shoulder. Zim stared a bit before blinking back to Gaz and Tak.

“So, why do you want to talk with the Almighty Zim?” Zim crossed his arms, faking confidence. Zim cursed his PAK, which had started to make him start to panic a bit, Zim was Irk’s finest invader. There was no need to panic now that he had left The Armada, they didn’t want him anyways.

“Gaz and I have observed how you act around the Dib-Unit.” Tak said narrowing her eyes, “I know that your PAK is a standard Irken PAK, so you do have panics or whatever The Armada called it. I also know, because of The Truce Dib-Unit has started helping you with those said Panics.” Zim nodded, as if that confirmed anything, almost everyone knows Dib helps Zim with this, but why does that matter currently?

“Do you feel anything when my brother calms you down? Like other than comfort?” Gaz asked, tilting her head a bit. Zim blinked, he knew the emotions that had followed Dib comforting him well.

“Well, obviously I feel safe. The Dib makes sure of that…” Zim trailed off, the unfamiliar feeling started bubbling in his squeedly spooch. “But nothing else, I swear!” Zim lied through his teeth. Gaz and Tak exchanged a look, Tak nodded, taking on the big sister role for Zim.

“Zim, it is alright to tell us. Whatever you say will stay between us, is that fine with you?” Tak leaned down a bit to make eye contact with the other Irken. Zim gulped hoping the feeling would disappear, it did not unfortunately. “So, do you have feelings for the Dib-Unit?”

“I- I don’t know.” Zim stuttered, Another look was exchanged by the two girlfriends. Tak whispered something into Gaz’s ear. 

“Could you elaborate on how Dib makes you feel Zim?” Gaz asked, sounding a little bit like Tak. They were analysing Zim! The filthy Irken spies must have set this up! Zim snarled, not wanting to think about the Irken scum here to eliminate him.

“Why would you want to know, Filthy Pig-Smelly?” Zim narrowed his eyes, his claws digging through his skin, even though he was wearing gloves.

“We merely wish to help you, Zim.” Tak said, again taking the ‘big sister’ role. Zim growled loudly.

“Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!” Zim marched away, heading to the cabins with a deep frown. He ignored the cries for him to come back and continued marching. The Irken gripped onto his messenger bag, kicking open the door to Cabin Nine. Dib jumped turning around to look at the Irken.

“Didn’t go too well?” Dib asked, eyes filled with sympathy for his dear alien. The alien groaned, throwing his bag down nearby the bed Dib had claimed before rushing into the human’s arms. “I’m taking that as a yes.” Dib frowned, rubbing circles into the aliens back. Zim’s squeedly spooch pounded at this action, feeling as if it was going to jump out of his throat. The Irken’s head immediately filled with the questions the couple asked him, Of course Zim felt something else other than comfort with the Dib, he knew a couple. He felt safe, he felt happy, he felt cared for, he felt ... loved. Zim’s eyes shot open upon realising the last bit, did he love Dib? Well, it could be analysed as such. Zim didn’t want to think about that so all he did in the end was snuggle deeper into Dib’s chest.

The door swung open a second time, this time a lot more gentle. Tak looked into the cabin and breathed out, “Thank the Tallest, he’s here.” Her normal way of speaking had faltered. Gaz peaked in and laughed quietly. Zim peeled his face off of Dib’s chest looking at the human who’d just entered. Her phone was pulled out, probably taking a picture, other hand on her hip. Tak was peering over her shoulder, a soft smile placed onto her face. Zim looked up at Dib, who was giving his sister the death glare.

“Delete those.” Dib frowned. Zim couldn’t place the emotion on Dib’s face, especially because the little details that the alien could observe so easily was getting blocked out by the bright red fading into Dib’s face.

“Nope.” Gaz said with a grin, popping the P. “You’ll thank me later, seriously Dib. Especially when children come into the picture.”

“GAZ!” Dib groaned, “Come on…. please delete those? For your little brother?”

“Hm…. Tak? What do you think I should do, Hon?” Gaz said, pouting playfully. Tak looked at the photos then looked at Zim. Tak drummed her two fingers on her chin thoughtfully.

“Do not erase these ones,” The female Irken pointed at three separate pictures. “they would not be too fond of the rest, but for embarrassment purposes keep those two. Destroy the others.” Gaz had followed the instructions of her lover.

“Thank you, Love.” The female human smiled before planting a kiss on her girlfriends lips. After they pulled away from short but sweet kiss, Tak spoke.

“Would someone conceal the windows? My hologram technology is about to cut out, and I am quite certain Zim’s hairpiece and contact lenses are causing troublesome itches.” Tak frowned, shutting the door behind her and locking it. Dib nodded, placing Zim to the side, and started closing all the blinds. Once all the blinds were shut, Zim peeled off his contacts and blinked a bit so his eyes could adjust. After his eyes adjusted he threw off his wig, it hit the wooden floors silently. Tak’s hologram fell shortly after, revealing her antenna and inhuman bug eyes.

“Dib, you brought your laptop right?” Gaz asked, eyebrow raised. “Because if you didn’t I swear to God-”

“I brought it, I brought it.” Dib raised his hands up in defense, then pulled it out of his bag. “Why do you need to know though? You know I have no video games, and I refuse to allow you to download anything on here.”

“Yeah, okay, whatever. I was suggesting we watch a movie while we wait for more announcements.” Gaz rolled her eyes.

“Oooh a movie! Zim likes this idea!” Zim grinned, He wasn’t too fond of Earth TV shows, but the movies… Zim loved those. At least the idea of going to a movie theatre and getting placed in a cold room with nothing but a large screen and chairs for people to fill up. There was nothing like it on Irk. The alien also loved the idea of huddling up with a small group of friends that he trusted to watch the movie on a small screen. They also had nothing like that on Irk.

“Alright, but I pick the movie, because it’s my laptop.” Dib took that small victory signing into his laptop, exiting the tab he was in before going on Netflix. Tak pulled out a pillow from her PAK, while Gaz dragged a long puffy blanket out of her suitcase that she brought, Zim searched through his messenger bag before finding a bag of chips, five things of fun dip, and finally a bag of sour patch kids. The four of them huddled up together on the cheap bed, Dib clicking on ‘Into the Spiderverse’ before pushing the laptop in the center.

The teenagers holding the ends of the blanket was Dib and Tak, allowing Zim and Gaz to enjoy the best places to be seated. Zim could hear the pounding of his squeedly spooch in his head, knowing how close he was with the Dib. The male Irken could practically feel Dib’s right hand next to his left. After about twenty minutes Zim bit his tongue and decided to do something stupid, and so Zim wrapped his second finger around Dib’s pinky finger. Dib quietly gasped, before flipping his hand over and took Zim’s hand. Zim grinned slightly scooting closer to Dib, Dib had done the same. Zim rested his head onto Dib’s shoulder until scratchy feedback from the PA system made the boys scoot far away from each other. “Hello happy campers!” Mr. Clark cheered into the PA’s microphone. “Welcome to Camp Leibe! Now at this time, could we get all the teams to head out to the benches? Thank you and make it a great day!” Zim could faintly hear Mr. Clark argue back and forth between Mrs. Lewis before Mrs. Lewis came onto the PA.

“Students,” a sad ‘aww’ came from the background. “Ugh… Campers. If you do not know the location of the benches, it’s near the entrance. If you do not know where the entrance is.... starve.” The PA cut out but not without another screech.

“I guess we should go eat, huh?” Dib scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, Zim nodded pausing the movie. Tak put on her hologram of a human, and Zim placed on his shoddily made disguise.

“Everyone ready?” Gaz asked, unlocking the door. Tak and Zim nodded, nearly in sync. The four teenagers headed to the entrance before spotted the large crowd of students, and walked up to them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hgnjhdfh this chapter feels clunky and i don't know why,,,


	4. A Distant Memory

Little brown bags were getting passed out to students only to discover they had sunflower butter sandwiches. All students ate, gagging, powering through, or taking a couple bites before dumping out the food. The male Irken realised everyone powering through were all from their school. It had made sense, they got served corn and mayo almost on a daily basis, this was an upgrade.

Zim raised a non-existent eyebrow and watched as Felix and Savannah get handed a brown bag and shortly dumped the food away, without even looking at what it was. They’re both Irkens? No, no that can’t be right, Savannah was so… tall. She could be The Tallest on her own. Yeah, Savannah couldn’t be. She just pulled out some human food from her bag, see? Nothing suspicious about Savannah. Zim concluded, and observed as Savannah offered some to Felix, who had declined.

Zim tugged on Dib’s sleeve, “Did you see that Earth-Stink?”

“No? I’m busy trying to get something to eat.” Dib frowned, as if completely forgetting their moment in the cabin.

“Ugh… nevermind Stink-beast.” Zim pouted, did the Dib really ignore the moment they shared? Stupid Stink-beast. Stupid Zim. Zim kicked himself mentally. How could he have been so ... foolish. He had fallen right into Dib’s hands, always wanting more, barely getting anything. Zim just hoped that the human wouldn’t steal other people’s hearts as easily as it had stolen Zim’s.

Zim got handed the stupid little brown bag, and followed Dib, sitting down at the table Felix was sitting at. “Dib, do you want my food? I’ll just eat more of my snacks at the cabin.” Zim pushed the bag towards Dib, before resting his head on the table. Dib looked at the alien concerned, Zim was never tuckered out this early.

“Zim-”

“Hey Dib how’s it going?” Felix asked leaning into the table, cutting the boy off. Savannah shook her head, and punched the boy on the arm lightly.

“Uh- how often are you gonna ask that?” Dib asked, making the boy flinch and turn pink slightly.

“Sorry, I’m sucky at starting conversations.” The boy mumbled a bit. “Uh- another random conversation starter, do you like Coke?”

“Do you mean the drug or the soda?” Gaz asked, sitting next to Dib.

“Either or.” This gained Felix another punch on the arm. Zim lifted his head slightly, why were the humans talking about drugs? Why did the Irken scum bring it up?

“I’m going to the cabin… don’t do anything stupid without me.” Zim said, suddenly exhausted, pushing himself up from the table.

“Zim, wait-” Dib once again got cut off by the boy across the table.

“Bye Zim!” He waved with a sly smirk. “Sleep well!” Zim shuddered, hating his tone of voice, all Zim wanted to do was punch him in the throat; alas he was too tired to do so. Zim just grumbled waving them off before he started his journey to Cabin Nine. The Irken felt woozy, he swayed a bit in the wind. It felt as if he was near the end of a nightmare, about to get killed before jolting awake. Zim hated the feeling, so he walked as fast as he could in this state.

Zim was obviously emotionally tired, all he needed was a goodnight’s rest and he’ll be back in action. He spotted Cabin Nine, before he ran over there. The Irken was shaking, but he ignored it entirely, pushing open the door to the Cabin. He spotted his messenger bag by a bed and plopped into it. Zim slowly remembered he had to close the door, but didn’t want to get up. Frowning he got up, closed the door slowly and embraced total darkness, his PAK being the only light in the room. He navigated the room, finding the bed he has claimed before putting his wigs and contact lenses on the end table beside it.

Zim layed there, heavily breathing for a couple minutes. He started chewing on his lip and watched the faint lights from the blinds slowly disappeared. How long will the filthy humans be gone? Zim pondered, before shaking the thoughts away. Letting himself be wrapped in a blanket of total darkness.

Zim opened his eyes to find himself somewhere completely different, Dib’s room. He was sitting on the bed, looking around the room before he spotted the human typing away on his computer. He looked, younger. Not a year younger, maybe about three months younger. “So Zim,” Dib broke the silence, spinning his chair around to make eye contact with the Alien. “You’ve been experiencing these… what was it again?”

Zim opened his mouth unwillingly, “Defection Florps.” He blinked, remembering the day this was. July 17th, the day they made the Truce.

Dib nodded, “Uh-huh…” he grabbed his notepad, writing this down. “So Defection Florps, what are they?”

“Well you Earth-Worm, they’re PAK induced attacks. Usually to make Irken who have defected from The Tallest feel useless without them, and come crawling back to them to either change their original code or…. To be killed.” Zim said once again, his breathing hitched. Dib’s eyes widened, placing his pen and pad down.

“Zim, this is serious, is there anyway we can reprogram the PAK or get rid of it entirely?” Dib frowned, turning back to his computer. “Like- maybe if I get into The Tallest’s information on this… we can fix it? I don’t know.”

“Dib-Stink we can’t-”

“No Zim! We have to fix this, this plagues probably many Irken’s, probably even Tak, We need to remove-”

“DIB YOU UNDERCOOKED POTATO! WE CAN’T! THIS IS ABOVE THE TALLEST, THIS IS THE CONTROL BRAINS!” Zim yelled, feeling one of his panics beginning. “Dib- we can’t- we can’t-” He couldn’t even finish his sentence. He was shaking, near tears. Dib turned around to the Alien and rushed over. Holding him close, mumbling things in a different language to Zim. Zim didn’t want to cry into his enemies arms, but he did. He sobbed for about ten minutes before calming down a bit. “Dib… I- I don’t want to die.”

“You’re not going to, especially with me around.” This statement had puzzled Zim at the time, didn’t the Dib want to kill him? Zim had only realised it now that they had developed a friendship before hand, confiding in each other when the rest of the world didn’t understand and was distant. “Hm… Let’s make a truce. I help you with your issues with a little bit terms. Simple stuff from a human that doesn’t want their planet destroyed, you know?”

“I’m not going to destroy your planet, Dib.” Zim frowned, “Why do you think I started getting these Defection Florps? I stopped trying. I stopped believing in them- I realised-” he cut himself off, finally saying the truth about his mission. “I realised they lied to me, that they wanted to get rid of me…”

“Oh Zim….” Dib mumbled solemnly, rubbing circles into Zim’s back. 

Zim’s eyes bursts open, he observed his surroundings. Soft snores surrounded him, he opened his messenger bag retrieving his phone, it’s three AM. He slid his phone back into his bag slowly, plopping his head back onto the cheap pillow. “Why on Irk am I awake?” Zim grumbled softly before hearing voices arguing outside, his antennae perked up. Zim snatched his wig off the end table and his eye contacts; he had placed them on quickly and silently opened the door. Zim closed it quietly behind him and followed the voices, listening carefully to what they were saying.

“Oh my Tallest, Lix will you just listen to me-”

“No! We need to abandon mission!” Zim’s mouth went ajar finding two Irken’s arguing fairly loudly in the woods by the cabins. The shorter one had a fairly pink colour palette, eyes a mix of pink and ruby, their face had magenta freckles scattered on their cheeks surrounding mainly the Irken’s eyes, meanwhile the outfit was nearly the same as Zim’s but tattered a bit and had mud caked on certain parts of it. The taller one, was near the height of the Tallest, just being a tad bit shorter than Purple, and had more of an indigo colour palette, outfit a lot more like Tak’s and had more of a skirt than the tight dress look the uniforms had, their eyes were bordering a lavender blue and sky blue, face scattered with blue freckles, much like their shorter companion.

“Lix, we don’t even know if the two boys onto us! You can’t just dip- er-  _ we  _ can’t just dip on this mission.”

“But we could eras-” Zim slowly recognised the voices. It was Savannah and Felix, or should he say Lix and Sav or whatever their actual names were. Zim grimaced, realising he didn’t bring his phone with him for evidence. The magenta Irken stepped forward, accidentally snapping a branch. He flinched seeing the two Irken’s look in his direction, but he ducked underneath a stump before they could see him.

“Search the area, and get your suit back on.” He heard Savannah say, the anger and worry from her voice was practically dripping from the statement. Zim heard a crackle of some kind and then footsteps. Zim made a mental plan, rolling over near his cabin before walking in plain sight of the two Irkens.

“I heard arguing, is everything alright?” Zim said, rather loudly. Felix practically jumped in the air upon hearing a new voice in the area.

“Uhm.. yeah- yeah, everything’s fine Zim.” The pink Irken’s voice cracked, rubbing the back of his neck. “You should go back to bed, we have a big day tomorrow fighting our fellow students, ya’know?”

Zim narrowed his eyes, “Sure, whatever, but shouldn’t you two be doing that as well?”

“Yes, yes. That’s what Felix and I were planning on doing. We’d just needed some fresh air. We were probably talking too loud. Sorry for waking you up, Zim.” Savannah smiled politely, you could barely see through the cracks of her fib. “Come along now, Felix.” Savannah started walking, which caused the smaller Irken to jog to catch up, before walking at a moderate pace slightly behind her. Zim glared at the two, before walking back into Cabin Nine to be greeted with the soft snores of the humans in the room.

Zim grumbled a bit, closing the door behind him before throwing his wig and contacts onto the end table, only his eye contacts made a satisfying sound for the action, which made the Irken grumble Irken swears fairly loudly, causing the raven haired boy to stir. Zim frowned, pulling out his phone before sitting on his bed.

A soft white colour with a tint of blue spilled over the room, Zim swiped his thumb over the designated pad to unlock it. He focused on his phone, bored out of his mind. He had spent only ten minutes with those Irken fools but he needed a distraction. Dib- he needed Dib. Zim perked up, looking over to the sleeping boy. The Irken stared at the slow and relaxing rise and fall of Dib’s chest, feeling his squeedly spooch beat faster than normal. Zim ignored it and decided to examine the boy’s face. His black hair had fallen into his face a bit, just a couple stands, nothing too serious, his face calm and lips slightly parted. The pounding of Zim’s squeedly spooch was hard to ignore at this point, he couldn’t wake The Dib; he cared too much for that human.

Zim flipped to his side, deciding that Dib’s social media account would suffice for the time being. The Irken read through Dib’s posts at 4 AM over the summer, one peaked his interest entirely.

_ ‘Mothman_Agnt: _

_ As much as I hate to admit it, this gay ball of stress has a crush. Woot. I never thought it would be him. I’m bad at code names, oh geez, let’s call him… gecko. Gecko’s a great guy and all, but he’s rather annoying and this “crush” is making it ten times more stressful. Every time he opens his stupid little mouth I want to kiss him to shut him up. It’s very annoying as you can probably tell. Anyways I’m tired, so bye for now I guess? -Mothman _

_08/01/XX at 4:58 AM_ _127 likes 3 comments’_

Zim had read and reread that post over and over again, Who could this ‘Gecko’ be? Obviously it couldn’t be an actual gecko, that’d be just weird. That was all Zim could conclude, he was tired after all. He exited the app and turned off his phone to only place it on the end table two minutes after he had let his eyes adjust, just to be taken into a world of slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> basically i forgot to upload any chapters cause i was being lazy not gonna lie

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably the shortest chapter we'll have,,, at least longer than two pages on google docs. anyways thanks for reading eggs of the internet.


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